MLB SERIES 13 PHOTOS NOW AVAILABLESpecial Extended Baseball Line will be Limited in ProductionFriday, May 06, 2005

Most baseball fans watch the off-season with a curious and interested eye. It's always exciting and sometimes painful to see teams wheel and deal, sending superstars from one city to another. There's nothing like seeing a big name player put on your team's uniform for the very first time. While the winter "swap meet" is exciting for most fans, it was frequently a frustration for our biggest seamhead, Todd McFarlane.

Our baseball lineups are cast in stone approximately seven months before they arrive in stores. This means that the last scheduled MLB series for 2005 was MLB 12, arriving in stores in late June. So as star after star changed teams following New Year's Day, Todd was left with no way to get figures for these relocated stars into collectors' hands.

That's how MLB 13 -- Extended Edition was born. Todd wanted to make figures for four of the game's best players who changed teams in late 2004 and early 2005. Three of the four figures have been sculpted by us before, though Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Larry Walker all have 100 percent new head sculpts for the MLB 13 line. Moises Alou was originally sculpted for MLB 12, but he took so long to sign with a team that we slid him into the MLB 13 lineup.

To put out a third baseball line (fourth if you include this Spring's Cooperstown Collection Series 2) we're running dangerously close to having it in stores at the same time as our much-anticipated NFL Legends debut series. To help the collectibility of the MLB 13 figures (which do not have chase versions) and to have them arrive and sell through in time to clear space for NFL Legends, these four figures are a short-printed run. MLB 13 is being produced at substantially lower-than-normal production numbers for an MLB line and will hit stores in August.

Here's a look at the MLB 13 lineup, enjoy the photography:

RANDY JOHNSON 3 -- The 10-time All-Star and five-time Cy Young award winner moved from the Diamondbacks to the Yankees in a blockbuster trade this January. "The Big Unit" surpassed Steve Carlton in 2004 to become Major League Baseball's all-time lefthanded strikeout leader. Now in pinstripes, Johnson will try to lead the Yankees back to the World Series.

LARRY WALKER 2 -- If not for the baseball strike of 1994, Larry Walker likely would have led the Montreal Expos to their first World Series championship. Instead, the Expos faded and relocated to Washington DC, and Walker went on to patrol right field for almost a decade in Denver. Late last season, St. Louis added the multi-talented former MVP to their already-powerful lineup. Walker helped propel the Cardinals to the 2004 World Series and looks to deliver a championship to St. Louis in 2005.

PEDRO MARTINEZ 2 -- The six-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young award winner has another number that's special to him: 86. Pedro Martinez accomplished his goal in Boston -- helping pitch the Red Sox to a World Series Championship that ended an 86-year title drought. Following the season, Boston's adopted son packed his bags and landed at LaGuardia, as the new ace of the re-tooled New York Mets.

MOISES ALOU -- The five-time All-Star joined his sixth team in 2005, leaving the Cubs as a free agent and landing in San Francisco. Playing for a team with your father as manager and Barry Bonds as your insurance sounds like a pretty sweet gig. Bonds' knee injury has complicated matters a bit, but is hasn't mattered at the plate, where Alou has helped spearhead the National League's most potent offense.